Octopus Energy reviews: Give your feedback

QrizB

Mstty said:

QrizB said:

Mstty said:

Absolutely shocking and some people will blindly take this.

If by "some people" you mean ">0 but hardly anyone", I can agree.

• If you come to the end of an existing fix, you'll be offered Loyal Octopus (currently 50p / 15p). Accepting the higher fix instead would be an unusual choice.
• If you're a new customer switching in, you'll have actively chosen the tariff.

No I mean people who receive a fix with a £ amount and they decide ok its horrendous but affordable they sign up without knowing pence per kWh.

Exactly which set of circumstances do you think would lead to that happening, besides one of the two I've described above?

Mstty said:

So you think 0 fair enough ...

You seem to be numerate enough to know that ">0 but hardly anyone" is not zero. Please don't misrepresent what I said.

Edit: this was an inadvertent mis-reading by Mstty and I withdraw my comment.

Mstty

I do have trouble with words which I have tried to explain in signature so sometimes I read things wrong.

Apologies from my side for reading this wrong it happens a lot with me, even re-reading a sentence over and over it sticks the same.

You have suggested hardly anyone, what's your best guess 1 in a 100/1000/1000? What is hardly? You know what questions people come to this forum with and the general lack of knowledge of kWh pricing, usage etc etc.

However Octopus do have to pay for Agile and Tracker somehow lol....cynical but this is potentially a balancing the books measure. Conversely it could send more to tracker and agile and ruin those products with rises for those already "in the know"

Still it's a fly trap for other Octopi.

MWT

Mstty said:

Still it's a fly trap for other Octopi.

As QrizB already pointed out, this isn't the tariff that would be offered to existing customers ending a fix, they would get the cheaper 'Loyal' version, the only way most people will get this is one is to actively seek out Octopus and choose to switch to them on this tariff, so I'd view it as less of a trap and more of a barbed-wire fence...

Home movers into an Octopus supplied property would still be best advised to stay on the SVT of course as they cannot access the 'Loyal' tariffs...

bristolleedsfan

Mstty said:

QrizB said:

tlcgrantham said:

Anyone new customers wanting to switch to a 12 month fix are now being offered 60pkw/h for electricity and 18pkw/h for gas. 

Yes, this is Octopus 12M Fixed July 2022 v3 in my region:

Mstty said:

Absolutely shocking and some people will blindly take this.

If by "some people" you mean ">0 but hardly anyone", I can agree.

• If you come to the end of an existing fix, you'll be offered Loyal Octopus (currently 50p / 15p). Accepting the higher fix instead would be an unusual choice.
• If you're a new customer switching in, you'll have actively chosen the tariff.

No I mean people who receive a fix with a £ amount and they decide ok its horrendous but affordable they sign up without knowing pence per kWh.

I think that's been evident on this forum since the April price cap. The majority come on quoting pounds and pence and most probably don't end up here for advice.

Correct, albeit i would say they sign up/choose expensive fixed rates without understanding pence per kWh in relation to energy capped kWh and possible future energy capped kWh.

Lower users are more likely to choose expensive fixed rate due to difference in direct debit amounts not appearing to be that much.

Same applies to Loyal 12 month fixed rate whereas for example British Gas goes through periods telling its existing customers cannot offer competitive fixed rates, Octopus offer fixed rates whatever the cost because after subsidising smart meter and Flexible Octopus tariffs needs to make money out of a tariff.

Octopus Blogs what should existing customers do in face of high energy prices conclude with trying to influence choosing of fixed rate tariff which contradicts advice Octopus give to new customers.

https://octopus.energy/blog/what-should-you-do-in-the-face-of-high-energy-prices/

Mstty

MWT said:

Mstty said:

Still it's a fly trap for other Octopi.

As QrizB already pointed out, this isn't the tariff that would be offered to existing customers ending a fix, they would get the cheaper 'Loyal' version, the only way most people will get this is one is to actively seek out Octopus and choose to switch to them on this tariff, so I'd view it as less of a trap and more of a barbed-wire fence...

Home movers into an Octopus supplied property would still be best advised to stay on the SVT of course as they cannot access the 'Loyal' tariffs...

Thanks for that clarity👍

QrizB

Mstty said:

Apologies from my side for reading this wrong it happens a lot with me, even re-reading a sentence over and over it sticks the same.

Understood; I've struck-through my comment.

Mstty said:

You have suggested hardly anyone, what's your best guess 1 in a 100/1000/1000? What is hardly? You know what questions people come to this forum with and the general lack of knowledge of kWh pricing, usage etc etc.

In my industry, it's assumed that people following a written instruction will get it wrong roughly 1 time in every 100 attempts. Let's say that 1 in 100 people who are offered a choice of "Octopus 12M Fixed July 2022 v3" or a more resonable tariff (Loyal Octopus, Flexible Octopus, GEUK Sparkling, or even Ebico Prime 12 Saver from the MSE guide) will choose the wrong one.

The question then becomes, how many people will find themselves in that situation? A current Octopus customer shouldn't, as they'll be offered Loyal Octopus instead when they come to the end of a fix or phone up Octopus to change tariff. A switching customer might be offered it, but to do that they'd need to phone Octopus and convince the CS rep to put them on it.

Thew most vulnerable people will be house-movers, as MWT says, who won't qualify for Loyal Octopus but (I assume) will still be offered a fixed tariff as an alternative to Flexible. A lot will depend on exactly how Octopus present the fix.

There's something like 1M house moves a year, about 20k a week, and Octopus have around 10% of the domestic energy market so 2k households switch to Octopus a week following a move. If 1/100 of those pick the wrong tariff, that's 20 households a week.

Telegraph_Sam

Not wanting to interrupt the interesting "thread" ..
I am on Go Faster for electricity and am considering switching my gas from another supplier into Tracker. So I know how a smart meter works with a ToU tariff such as Go Faster. But with gas the situation is less clear cut.
- Can someone explain what difference having a smart meter makes for using Tracker gas  - compared with a non-smart meter. Apart from the obvious not having to physically read and submit regular gas meter readings manually.
- And how the operation and output of a smart meter differs between displaying / recording gas and electricity.
Tks

k_man

With a smart meter, Tracker is billed based on each day's usage (as reported by the meter) at that day's unit price.

Without a smart meter, the total month’s usage (from your manual meter readings) is split based on typical usage (Annual Load Profiles) e.g decreasing over the month during spring months.
Then each day is charged at that day's unit price.

(In both cases there is a summary on the bill, based on the average calculated from the daily costs.)

So without a smart meter, you can't take advantage of low costs days by shifting usage

https://octopus.energy/tracker-faqs/

How we calculate daily usage

Our smart meter rollout will start in the next few months and until then we'll use the meter readings you give us, and apportion usage to each day using the official Profile Coefficients for electricity, and Annual Load Profiles for gas.

We make projections with the official estimated consumption figures for each meter (known as EAC for electricity and AQ for gas), or in their absence, the estimates customers give us. The more meter readings you give us, the more accurate we can be.

[Deleted User]

k_man said:

With a smart meter, Tracker is billed based on each day's usage (as reported by the meter) at that day's unit price.

Do you have proof of that, or is that what you believe? I have had SMETS2 meters now for over 3 years and I have been on Octopus Tracker for over 2/3 of the time. If Octopus was raising a daily cost for Tracker customers with smart meters, then the billing would look like Agile with daily costs. My latest Tracker gas bill shows an average unit cost based on start and end of period index readings:

I see no evidence of daily billing.The statement also clearly states that the AVERAGE daily unit price is used.

Umiamz

When I was on Tracker with my SMETS1 meters it was definitely calculated on each day’s usage as reported by the meters. There was an extra page in the statement showing each day’s usage and it tallied with my own data from the meters.